


a chilling night

by TranquilityOPeace



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Halloween
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:08:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27316795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TranquilityOPeace/pseuds/TranquilityOPeace
Summary: Harry visits Ginny at Hogwarts during Halloween. Surely nothing can go wrong?
Relationships: Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	a chilling night

Out of all the things Harry expected to get asked for Halloween from his girlfriend, being asked to return to Hogwarts for a brief celebration party was certainly not one of them.

“Ginny, are you sure about thi-” Before the boy could finish his sentence, a finger was pressed to his lips, shutting him up.

“Yes, Harry. I am absolutely sure about this,” Ginny said, giving him a glare which further proves she actually meant what she was telling him. “McGonagall told us over dinner that we were welcome to invite previous students back for the festivities; said we were allowed to bring one friend per person from outside Hogwarts just for the night.”

She stared at Harry as he struggled to come up with excuses for not going, only to finally give up just seconds later as his arms slump to both sides. Feeling the grin on her face, she leans in to give him a quick peck on the cheek. “It’ll be fine Harry, just a night of fun back at school.”

Harry returned a faint smile. “Sure, anything to spend the night with you.”

* * *

What Ginny did not expect was for her brother to show up alongside Harry on the day.

“Ron? Why are you here?” she asked, a bit irritated that she’d have less quality time to spend with Harry. 

Oblivious to her annoyances, Ron shrugged his arms and took another bite of his food. “Harry mentioned the Halloween stuff to me so why not? Plus,” he glanced to the side, looking at his two best friends engaged in work-related chat, “it gives me a chance to visit Hermione anyway.”

Ginny couldn’t believe that Hermione would have bothered with festivities at all, but as she remembered how frequent her brother and his girlfriend tried to find places to snog over the past summer, suddenly the prospect of her walking away from her studies for a night didn’t seem too far-fetched after all.

As if sensing her disappointment, Harry turned his head towards her with a concerned look in his eyes. “You alright?”

She shook her head in return. “It’s fine, it’s just-”

Suddenly a loud ring was heard within the entire Great Hall, and the lively conversations died down almost instantly. Ginny looked up from her half-finished chicken leg as Professor McGonagall stood up from her table to address the students, only to look back at her plate as the headmistress gave one of her usual speeches at festive dinners.

However, she barely finished up her plate when she heard a collective gasp from the rest of the students, followed by a wave of excited chatter. “Harry, what did McGonagal say?” she gave him a slight nudge, as she completely missed every single word.

Harry gave her a slight shrug. “One of the classrooms has been made into an obstacle course by some of the students and anyone interested could give it a go later…” He looked at her. “You haven’t heard of anything being planned?”

Ginny shook her head. “They must have wanted to keep it a secret,” she looked around her as students around them started shuffling out of the Great Hall, eager to check out the attraction. “Come on Harry, let’s follow the crowd to see what this thing is all about.”

As the two stood up, the other redhead nearby followed suit. “Hey, we should go together!” Ron said, attempting to drag Hermione away from her book. “Come on Hermione, just put down the book for one night please?”

Ginny turned away as her brother and friend started bickering with each other, muttering something under her breath as she made her way towards the exit.

* * *

The “obstacle course” turned out to be multiple courses, as the four soon found out that several classrooms had their own courses for different subjects. How Ginny managed to be completely oblivious to any sort of preparation that had been going on, she had no clue.

“Um…” she stared at the sign in front of her, unable to decide on a classroom to go to. “Any idea which we should go to-”

“Defense Against the Dark Arts maybe,” her question was interrupted by Harry’s suggestion, “I’m mildly interested in seeing what they have done for that one.”

Ron however, looked slightly crestfallen by that suggestion. “Too bad, I wanted to go to the Charms’ one instead.” Feeling stares from the three people around him, he looked back at them with an amused look on his face. “What? I have a feeling that’s it’s going to be interesting.”

Before Ginny could say anything, Hermione chimed in. “How about we go our separate ways then? Ginny and Harry can do the one in Defense, while Ron and I can head off to the Charms classroom.” A grin could be seen on her face, and Ginny knew all too well what Hermione actually had in mind. 

“Sure, let’s split up then.” Ginny took Harry’s hand, and as she started walking off, she turned her head towards the other couple. “See you two later in the entrance hall at 9!”

She could hear Ron’s protests from behind as he got dragged off by his girlfriend, feeling a bit amused by his reactions. “Do you think they would really make it to the Charms classroom?” Harry asked, who now had a clear smirk on his face. 

Feeling the smug smile creeping up to her face as well, she gave him a half-hearted shrug. “Who knows?” She grabbed Harry’s hand again. “Come on, let’s get to our destination now.”

* * *

After a brief introduction from the students standing on duty, the two stepped ahead into the obstacle course. The room was very dimly lit, yet carefully sectioned off to make out a maze for the participants to go through.

“I can’t believe that the whole thing is supposed to be done without wands,” Ginny frowned, stowing her wand away in her robe pockets as she took it out earlier for preparation. “What are we supposed to do in there then?”

“Beats me,” Harry shrugged. “If I had to wager a guess, probably something like those muggle Halloween attractions where you just go through a decorated room where they have people dress up as creatures to scare visitors off…”

“Oh! Is it those ghost houses you told me about a few days ago? You’ve got to take me to one of those someday.” She saw Harry shivered briefly before replying, “I uh, don’t really take those well actually…” They ventured forward into the maze, passing through the obstacles that came their way. 

* * *

“That wasn’t too bad,” Harry remarked, as they passed by a sign that marked “Exit”. “I did expect more out of something that was situated in school though… like isn’t magic supposed to be used somewhere? You know, just to make it a bit more interesting and scarier?”

Ginny was about to give a reply when all of a sudden a loud crashing noise could be heard. Before she could even react, she saw Harry whip his wand out at breakneck speed while moving in front to shield her. “Stay behind me,” he muttered to her. However, as soon as he finished those words, he immediately froze on the spot. 

“...Harry? Are you okay?” She asked, yet the black-haired boy gave no response. Feeling a bit scared now, she peeked out from behind his back, hoping to catch a glimpse of what was happening.

And there she saw herself - rather a clone of herself, lying dead on the floor.

Forcing herself to stay calm, she reminded herself that there was no way that she could be dead, for she was still standing up and well alive; there could only be one reason for the body that lay in front of the two-

“Harry, don’t worry, it’s just a boggart,” Ginny whispered, trying to calm her boyfriend down. Yet he still stood rooted in spot, unable to move apart from his arms starting to shake a bit. She wondered if he could even mutter the words to repel the boggart.

Just when she was about to take out her own wand, several other students could be seen coming into the corridor they were in, quickly casting spells to shut the boggart into a trunk they brought along. With the boggart captured, one of the boys turned to face Ginny. Just when she was about to complain about the fact they mentioned no wands would be required for the activity, he apologized quickly.

“Very sorry about that, the locks on the trunk came loose and he just came out.” Upon seeing the genuine apologetic look on his face, her annoyance subdued and she gave him a wary smile. “You two wanna leave the maze now? I’ll guide you two out.” Taking a glance at Harry, she decided that he was not in the right state to make a decision of any sort, so she nodded her head towards the boy.

“Sure, lead the way.”

The return journey to the entrance hall was carried out in total silence.

* * *

They finally reached the entrance hall and found a bench to sit on. Before Ginny could say anything, Harry turned to her.

“Sorry for freezing up back there, I was just…” Harry let out a sigh. “...it was that spur of the moment that, I- I really thought you were dead there.”

“Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived and the leader of the DA in his 5th year, yet he freezes at the sight of a boggart.” she teased, attempting to lighten Harry’s mood. 

Frowning, Harry grumbled, “Come on Ginny, I’ll have you know that I am the highest performer in the Auror Academ-” before he could finish, Ginny pressed her lips to his and gave him a brief kiss. Pulling apart quickly, she snuggled her head into his chest.

“I’m here and alive Harry.” she whispered, at the same time wrapping her arms around her “Tom is gone. There is nothing else that will threaten my life.” 

Ginny looked up at Harry’s face hoping to find a relieved expression; instead, she caught a smirk slowly forming. “Funny to hear that from the Gryffindor captain who just fell off her broom two weeks prior, and had to stay in the hospital wing overnight-”

She silenced him with a longer kiss, only separated by the loud sound of the clock tower in the distance.

“Merlin, it’s nine already.” Harry looked around for any sign of his best mates, only to spot no one familiar within sights. “You don’t suppose they are probably still tackling another obstacle course of their own?”

Ginny laughed. “Well, I guess there’s this nice spot along the corridor which, to my knowledge, is probably unused right now.” Getting up from the bench, she pulled Harry up as well and started dragging him along.

Returning the laugh, Harry grinned at her. “Gladly.”


End file.
